If you just started school, and are still crapping your pants over the price of those dam books (I know I am) then you’re like most people. I have spend a good portion of the last three weeks trying to find the very best deals, and I still ended up paying over $200 for my books (not too bad, as they would have cost me over $1,200 in the college book store). Lucky for you, there are ways around having to pay full price for those dam books, as long as you start looking far enough in advance, you can save a lot of money.
Borrow from a friend
If you know somebody that has taken the same class that you’re taking now and still have the books then just borrow them. This has worked for me so many times in the past semesters. It also doesn’t hurt to make friends with somebody in your class if you don’t think that you will need the book that much. Even if you do, you can always copy the pages, and suggest that you and your new found friend have plenty of study sessions.
Buy Used
When I say used, I don’t mean the books with the used stickers in the book store. I mean either go to someplace like craigslist or an off campus bookstore, where your going to get a book that you have to duct tape to keep together, but your going to save a whole lot of money. Off campus book stores tend to buy books from students for a little more money, and sell them for a little less.
Buy Online
Half.com along with amazon.com have a good number of retailers that will sell you that same book sometimes for a lot less then what your going to have to pay at that campus bookstore. The only drawback is that might have to wait a few weeks before you will be able to get your books, but if you can wait, then your not going to have to eat dry ramen noodles all semester. Ebay is also another good way to go, but be warned that you might be bidding on a book that a thousand other people are looking for, so a bidding war could end up costing you more money then you want to spend.
Old Editions
I know that they are outdated, and you might not want to bring them into your class, but older books contain about %90 of the same info that the newest edition costs and most of them you can find at places like half.com or amazon.com for under $20. I have gone this rout several times when teachers don’t assign work straight out of the book, or you have access to a book through somebody else.
Library
No matter how much your books cost, your campus library will probably lend the books out to you for at least an hour for free. That means that you don’t have to spend any money at all, but in most cases they let you keep it for an hour, but you can leave the building with them. It might be a little harder to do it this way, but at least your getting to use a book without having to pay any money. My college has a book reserve room, where professors can put a copy of the book that they are using incase their students don’t have the funds to buy the book.
No comments:
Post a Comment